


Emerald Eyes

by marukusanagi



Series: FFXV DRABBLES & SHORT STORIES [6]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: I JUST RE USED OTHER PERSON TRANSLATION, I Tried, M/M, Please Don't Kill Me, What Have I Done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 14:39:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14718006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marukusanagi/pseuds/marukusanagi
Summary: And old legend tellsA spirit of the devil dwellsIn a lake beyond the treesAnd I found my ruin in this place





	Emerald Eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [GREEN EYES](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/382632) by Gustavo Adolfo Becquer - translation by ARMAND F. BAKER. 



 

 

“The spiracorn is wounded! It is. There, you can see the drops of blood between the wranches and in the rocks, were it jumped, and its legs fail because of weakness… the young master does start where other finish! In my years I ever saw a shoot like that! But, by the Six that looks over us! Cut off that spiracorn before it gets through the rest of these rocks, set the hounds, and blow the corns until the air in your lungs is lost, and sink the spurs in the flanks of your mounts! Can’t you it’s about to reach the ruins of Steyliff Grove, and if it reaches it we better consider it lost?!”

The sound of horns echoed over the waters of the Vesperpool, the pack of hounds was let loose, and the voices of the hunters resounded with new fury as the combined troop of men, chocobos and dogs directed by Umbra, the Chief Hunter of the Prince of Tenebrae, made a determined effort to cut off the flight of the wounded spiracorn. But all their efforts were in vain. By the time the fastest greyhound reached the end of the rock panting, his jaws slavered with foam, the spiracorn, which was as fast as an arrow, had already left it and had entered the path which leads to the ruins.

“Stop!... everyone stop!” Umbra shouted. “It was the goddess will that it escapes.”

The mounted procession halted, the horns stopped blowing and, after a shout from the hunters, the eager pack of greyhounds also stopped following the Trail.

And in that moment the group was joined by Ravus Nox Fleuret, the older son of Queen Sylva of Tenebrae and brother to lady Luna, the Oracle.

“What are you doing?” he shouted, with a livid expression of outrage painted in his face when he looked at his chief hunter. “You idiot, what have you done? The animal is badly wounded – the first I been able to shoot and I want it for my mother – and now you let it go and die in the marshes. Do you think I came to hunt only to let the daemons feast on it?”

“Sire”, Umbra whispered, “it’s impossible to go beyond this point.”

“Impossible! And why?”

“Because this trail”, continued the hunter, “leads to the entrance of the ruins of Steyliff grove, ruins where old spirits lives. The habitants of Solheim venerated their deaths in that place. Anyone who dares to come close to that side will pay dearly for his boldness. The spiracorn will have already crossed the boundary. How will you ever be able to stop it, without bringing a terrible disaster down on your head? We hunters are the kings of the woods, but kings who pay a price. And any animal who manages to get near that mysterious place must be considered a lost cause.”

“A lost cause! I would rather lose the lordship of my family; I would rather place my soul in the hands of Ifrit than let that spiracorn escape, since it is the only one that was shot by my bow, and on my very first hunting expedition… Look there, you can see… It is still visible; its legs are weakening and it’s slowing down, so let me go… just let me go… Let go of my bridle, or I will knock you off your mount… Maybe I can still reach it before it gets to the ruins. And if it does, the Devil take its waters, and its evil inhabitants. Let’s go, _Relámpago_!; let’s go, bird! If you can catch it, I will order them to fasten diamonds to your golden halter.”

The chocobo and its rider bolted off with an explosion of movement. Umbra followed them with his eyes until they disappeared among the trees; he turned to the others and saw that they were also frozen and speechless. Finally, the Chief Hunter said to the others: “Men, you saw it; I was ready to die under the hooves of his mount to keep him from leaving. I did what I could. No good can come from confronting the devil. A hunter can go this far with his bow; but in order to go any further than this, you would need a priest with a dispenser of holy water.”

 

* * *

 

 

“You look a bit off-color today; you are gloomy and upset. What is wrong with you? Ever since that fateful day, which I will always consider regrettable, when you went to the ruins of Steyliff after that wounded spiracorn, you look like some evil witch has put you under her spell. You never go into the forest with your hounds, nor does the sound of your horn echo through the trees. Every day, bearing this burden that seems to weigh you down, you enter the forest with your bow and remain there until the sun sets. Then, by the time the sun is high, you come back to the castle pale and exhausted, but I have not seen you bring home any game. What are you doing during those long hours when you are away from those who love you?”

While Umbra spoke, Ravus was lost in thought, mechanically digging splinters out of an ebony chair with his hunting knife. After a long silence, that was only interrupted by the sound of the blade scraping the polished wood, the young lord turned to his servant and, as if he had not heard a single word the latter had spoken, he said: “Umbra, you’ve been here a long time; you know all the haunts of Cleigne; you have crossed its slopes in pursuit of game, and during your many hunts you have reached the ends more than once. Tell me: by chance, have you ever encountered a person who lives among its rocks?”

“A person?” exclaimed Umbra, looking at him with astonishment.

“Yes, it’s very strange… I can’t say if its male or female; I thought I could keep this a secret indefinitely, but I see that is not possible. It spills out of my heart and is visible in my countenance. So I am going to tell you… And I hope you will be able to help me resolve the mystery surrounding this creature who, it seems, is real only for me, since no one else has ever seen they, nor can anyone tell me anything about they.”

Without saying a word, and without taking his eyes off Fernando, Umbra moved the stool where he was sitting so he was facing his lord’s chair. The latter, after gathering his thoughts, continued speaking.

“Since the day when, in spite of your ominous predictions, I went to the ruins of Steyliff and rode into the marshes to retrieve the spiracorn your superstition allowed to escape, my soul has been consumed by a desire for solitude. I mounted my bird and crossed the lake’s waters, until we reached an old pier, a place where only the insects and birds sing. You have no idea what that place is like. After you cross the rocks, next to the shore, the lakes waters shine like gold. A calm place, where the old pier between the plants still rises. You all say daemons lurks in there, but they never crossed my path. There, the hums of the lake sound like voices, moans names, songs… I don’t’ know what it is that I heard when, alone and filled with sadness, I sat on the edge of a rock to admire the flowers that bloomed in the shore. Everything there seems large, the solitude, with its myriad of tiny, mysterious sounds spreads through that space, intoxicating the spirit with an ineffable melancholy, it seems the invisible spirits of yore speak to us, like they recognize a kindred spirit in the immortal soul of men.”

When you saw me take my bow at the break of dawn and take the path to lake, it was never with the intention of going to hunt for game, no; I always went to sit on the edge of the pier, to look in its waters and for… I don’t know what… some madness! On the day when I rode into it with my Relámpago, I thought that I saw something strange in the waters… something very strange…; a person’s eyes. Maybe it was only a ray of sun that sparkled on the green leaves; or maybe it was one of those flowers that blooms in the lake whose petals looks like emeralds…; who knows; but I thought those eyes were fixed on mine; it was then that an absurd, impossible dream was awakened in my heart: to find a person with eyes like those. That is why I returned, night after night, in the hope of finding them. Finally, one midnight… I thought it was a dream…, but no, it was real. I have spoken with this person many times, like I am speaking with you now… One afternoon, sitting where I usually sit, dressed in clothes that reached the waters and floated over its surface, I found an incredibly beautiful creature. Their hair was like gold; their  eyelashes shone like threads of light; and between those lashes sparkled the same eyes I had seen… Yes, because the eyes of that person were those that had become fixed in my mind, eyes with a color that was amazing; eyes that were…”

“Emerald!”, exclaimed Umbra with terror, rising out of the place where he had been sitting. Ravus looked at him with surprise and asked him with a mixture of anxiety and happiness.

“Do you know them, then?”

“By the Six, no!”, the huntsman objected, “The Goddess forbid I should ever know them. But when my parents forbade me to go to that place, they told me many times that the spirit, the imp, the devil, or the human, who lived in those waters, had eyes of that color. I beg of you, by what you love most in this world, do not go back to the lake. Sooner or later its terrible curse will certainly fall on you, and you will perish in its tainted waters.”

“By what I love most…” the young man murmured with a sad smile.

“Yes,” his servant insisted, “by your mother, by your sister, by the soul of the one whom Heavens has destined to be your wife, by that of a servant who witnessed your birth.”

“Do you know what I love most in the world? Do you know for what I would sacrifice the love of my mother, the kisses of my sister, and all the affection that the women of this world could offer me? For one gaze, for just one gaze from those eyes… How could I possibly not keep on searching for them?” Ravus said this with such intensity that a tear trembled in Umbra’s eye, and then it trickled down his cheek, as he said with a tone of foreboding:

“May the Crystal will be done!”

 

* * *

 

 

“Who are you? Where are you from? Where do you live? I have come here looking for you almost every day, and I never see a chocobo, or any other means of travel that could bring you here. Please tear away the veil of mystery that surrounds you like the darkest night. I love you and, noble or commoner, I will be yours, yours forever.”

The sun had passed behind the peak of the mountains, and the shadows were spreading down its slopes. The wind was whistling through the poplars, and the fog was gradually rising over the water and covering the rocks on its edge. On one of these rocks that seemed about to plunge into the depths of the water whose trembling surface reflected his image, was the heir of Tenebrae, who was resting on his knees at the feet of his mysterious beloved, as he tried in vain to learn the secret of his strange existence.

He was beautiful, beautiful and pale, like an alabaster statue. His hair was a dirty blonde, fixed in a pompadour, shining under a veil, like a sun ray lost in a cloud. In the circle of blond eyelashes his green eyes shone, like two emeralds set in gold. When the young prince stopped talking, his lips parted as though he was about to say something, but then only a sigh, weak and halting, lie a ripple that was pushed by the breeze until it was lost among the rushes.

“Why don’t you answer me?” Ravus pleaded, on seeing his hopes dashed. “Do you want me to believe all that they have said about you? But no, never that… Speak to me; I want to know if you love me; I want to know if I can love you, if you are a human…”

“Or perhaps a daemon… And if I were?”

The youth hesitated for a moment, while a cold sweat spread over his body; his mismatched eyes opened farther as he fixed them on theirs even more intently, fascinated by its phosphoric glow. Almost driven mad, he exclaimed with an outburst of love:

“If you were… I would still love you… I would love you then, as I love you now, as it is my destiny to love you, even beyond this life, if there is something beyond it.”

“Ravus,” the beautiful creature said with a voice that seemed like music, “I love you even more than you love me; I who am a true spirit, have descended to a mortal. I am not a person like those who exist on the Earth; I am a one who is worthy of you, you who are superior to other men. I live here in the depths of these waters, and I am incorporeal, fleeting and transparent, like they are: I speak with their voice and I move in their ripples. I will not punish the one who dares to disturb the waters where I dwell; instead, I will reward him with my love, as a mortal who is immune to ordinary superstitions, as a lover who is capable of appreciating my rare and mysterious affection.”

While it spoke, Ravus was lost in the contemplation of his ineffable beauty and, as though he were drawn by a mysterious power, he moved closer and closer to the edge of the water. The green-eyed creature continued speaking:

“Look; can you see the clear bottom of this lake? Can you see all the plants with long green leaves that are rocking on the bottom?… They will give us a bed of emeralds and coral…, and I… I will give you a nameless joy, the joy of which you have dreamed during your moments of rapture, a happiness no other woman could give you… Come, the fog is floating over us like a blanket of linen… The waves are beckoning with their incomprehensible voice, and now the wind is rustling the poplars with its hymn of love. So come… come…”

Night was beginning to spread its shadow over the water, and the face of the moon was shining on the surface; the fog was eddying in the breeze, and the green leaves glowing in the darkness seemed like will-o’-the-wisps flickering over the surface of tainted waters…

“Come, come…” These words were humming in Ravus’s ears like an incantation. “Come…,” and the creature who called him from the border of the abyss seemed to offer him a kiss… a kiss…

Ravus took one step forward, and then another…; he felt slender arms wrap around his neck, and then he felt a cold sensation, like a snowy kiss on his burning lips…

He hesitated…

But he slipped and fell into the water, with a fateful splash.

The water splattered like sparks of light; then, it closed over his body, and silvery rings spread out until they finally disappeared.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I try to do this, to rewrite another story to make it as my own version. I had already the idea of Ignis being an evil spirit, but I had to find his victim. For a moment I thought of Noctis, but his character didn’t fit the original protagonist, so, I choose Ravus, since he is the only one that had been raised as a noble, with his obligations and luxuries, and well, we have a fic for the fleurentia.  
> Anyway, I know I didn’t do much as rewrite some parts to become this a FFXV fic, so please bear it with me….  
> And I hope I haven’t made a mess. I was in the middle of writting this and making Ravus enter Steycliff Cove ruins , then into where you fight Quetzalcoatl, where it lloks like a garden, but then the end would'nt be the same and I didn't want to do this a very long story, I know I could go after the legend it's mentioned about the death of an Oracle in the wiki (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Steyliff_Grove) but it was going to became too complex.


End file.
